Teddy Bear Stuffing
by Kittyclaw
Summary: Oneshot, OxA fluff. When five year old Aelita loses her friend to the second grade bully, it's a certain blonde that makes things right.


**A Note to fellow authors- due to the change of CL from the anime to the cartoons category, you have to go in and reset the characters of you stories or else they won't show up in a search. Please spread the word so that we can enjoy our CL fics to the fullest! And now, onto the actuall author's note.**

**So, I was thinking about the fact that I tend to refer to fluff stories, especially my OxA ones, as teddy bear stuffing, and suddenly this plot bunny came bounding up and beat me with a shovel. So I couldn't help but write it in all it's cuddly gooeyness. It's AU I figure, since it has Odd and Aelita in the same kindergarten class. Enjoy the cuddly, and be sure to give your teddy and extra hug!**

"Give him back!" Aelita cried, her little five year old arms reaching up to try and snatch the teddy bear being held above her head.

"Come on, jump for it!" the second grade bully said, laughing as he dangled the bear just out of poor Aelita's reach.

"Please Mitch," Aelita sniffled, "Teddy didn't do anything to you."

"Doesn't mean I'm not going to do anything to 'Teddy'," Mitch said, saying the bear's name with a mocking drawl. He then grabbed one of the bear's arms in each hand. "How hard do you think I'll have to pull to tear him half?"

"No!" Aelita shouted, lunging for the bear. "Let him go!" Mitch simply laughed, using his foot to shove the little girl away from him. Aelita landed with a thump in the dirt. Tears splashed down her front as she heard the sounds of stitches breaking. Mitch laughed louder as one of the bears arms came free, stuffing leaking from its ripped end.

"Oops," Mitch said, his voice sarcastic. "Looks like I broke it." A thoughtful look then came over the boy's face as he tossed the arm to the ground. It became a cruel grin. "I wonder- does its head come off too?"

"No!" Aelita wailed, burying her face in her hands. More ripping sounds reached Aelita, who cried louder.

"What is going on over here?" a stern voice asked, causing both children to look up. They found a teacher standing over them, her hands planted firmly on her hips.

"We're just playing," Mitch said, attempting a winning grin. Judging by the look the teacher was giving the boy, she wasn't buying it. She snatched the bear from his hands and handed it back to Aelita and then grabbed Mitch's wrist and marched him away, telling him off loudly as she did.

Rubbing the back of her hand over her eyes, Aelita looked down at her tattered bear. On its side, where there had once been an arm, nothing but a ragged edged hole remained, from which hung a small cloud of cotton. The poor creature's head hung from its neck by a small bit of still connected fabric, more stuffing poking out of the neck and severed head. Sniffling, Aelita gathered up the remains of her stuffed friend just as her own teacher called for her students to return to class.

"Oh dear," Aelita's teacher said when she noticed the destroyed toy that Aelita was carrying back into class. "What happened to your bear?" she asked.

"M-Mitch," Aelita snuffled. The teacher nodded, immediately knowing what Aelita meant. It was almost daily that her kids came to her complaining about something or other that boy had done to them.

"There there," the teacher comforted, patting Aelita on the shoulder as she gently pulled the bear from her little fingers. "When your father comes to get you we'll let him know what happened. I'm sure he'll get you a new bear. Aelita just sniffled sadly as the teacher walked away, taking the teddy bear's remains and depositing them in the waste basket by her desk. She then reached under her desk, pulling out a large box filled with numerous smaller containers.

"Alright class," she called, getting her students' attentions. "Time for arts and crafts! Today we are making cards for people who we think are feeling sad and need cheering up! So come and get your supplies and some paper, and then take them to your desk and you may begin."

Aelita trudged up to the teacher, not at all in the mood for making something to make people feel better. She didn't look up at the teacher as she gathered her supplies, or at the student who bumped into her as he grabbed some paper.

"Sorry," Odd said, looking over at the pink haired girl he'd bumped. She didn't say anything back, just quickly grabbing some colored paper before hurrying back to her seat. Odd frowned. He'd seen what happened today during recess, when her bear had been pulled apart by the bully from the second grade. Although their hatred of Mitch was something all kindergartners generally rallied together on, no one had gone to Aelita's aid that day. This was mainly due to that fact that Aelita didn't really have any friends in the kindergarten class.

"That's not fair," Odd whispered to himself as he watched Aelita find a table near the corner by herself to sit at. "Someone should make her a feel better card."

The light bulb that came on over Odd's head at that moment made him grin widely and he hurried away from the crowd of students getting craft supplies- and over to the waste basket holding Aelita's damaged teddy bear. Making sure no one was looking; Odd reached a hand in and nabbed a fist full of the bear's stuffing before quickly scurrying away.

Over at Aelita's lonely table, the pink haired girl was just putting the finishing touches on her simple card- a folded piece of pink paper with a teddy bear scrawled on the front. The inside was blank. Aelita sniffled again as she stared down at the card, not sure what to say to her gone forever bear.

"Hi!" a voice said, startling Aelita. She looked up, quickly scrubbing at watery eyes. Standing beside her table was a boy with messy blonde hair, a purple card clutched in his fingers.

"Umm, hi," Aelita said shyly. She wasn't used to the other kids coming over and talking to her. It took her a moment to remember his name.

"I saw what they kid did to your bear today," the boy, Odd, said. "That was really mean of him. So I made you a card so you can feel better!"

"Uh," Aelita muttered, taking the gift that was suddenly thrust at her. She stared at Odd a moment longer, and then looked down at the card in her hands. It was a square of purple paper, cut with the skill of five year old fingers, and decorated with crayon scribbled words- 'I'm sorry about your bear but now you can still have him with you!' Under these words, held on with copious amounts of glue, was a heart made of some of the stuffing from her ruined bear.

Aelita stared down at the card, eyes wide. This was the nicest thing anyone had ever given her.

"Umm, well, I'mma go now," Odd said, motioning to the table where his friends where calling his name.

"Wait!" Aelita called, setting down her new card and grabbing the other one she had been working on. She quickly wrote 'thank you' inside it, with a big red heart, and handed it over to the blonde. Odd looked at the card and grinned.

"Thanks!" he said, and then scurried off to rejoin his friends. Aelita smiled, and then turned back to her own card. She poked the stuffing heart, and grinned wider. Now she could keep more than her bear close. She could keep her first friend close too.


End file.
